NBA Playoffs!

[TommyGold]

Atlanta Hawks @ Orlando Magic:

Orlando is now in their best moment of the season. They are healthy, as they had the biggest number of days without a game since the beginning of the season. They were able to pack up the Bobcats in 4 games, and are just waiting for the next opponents in their path to the final.

The Hawks had extra work to knock out the Bucks. Even with their best to players out, the Bucks had taken the series to game 7, giving lot's of work to the Hawks. Their offense is not working properly, as they had some problems against the Bucks, where they were able to control in the paint.

However, they will face now the best defensive player in NBA, Howard, and that edge will be no longer in Hawks side. Their defense will have huge problems, like we saw during the regular season against Orlando. There is no doubt that this team have talent, however, is a little bit young and with lack of experience in this wanderings.

The fact that they needed a game 7, two days ago, to grant their presence in todays game, is not good. They didn't prepare properly the game for tonight, and didn't had enough rest. At Orlando, this team can only try to study the Magics, as they have no chance to face a strong an rested Magics in Orlando, right now.

The Magics are without afraid of any one. They know that if they want to be champions, as they wish, they have to knock out any team. Their edge in the paint is huge, and as we saw against Bobcats, they have no pity to have a double digit win. They know that a big win today is the perfect start to this series.

They can't give any hopes to the Hawks, they have to smash them as soon as they can, to avoid the NBA banner "Where everything can happen". The team is completely healthy, have rested 7 days and had a week to prepare this game. There is no excuses, as they have all the edge in the paint, and even behind the arc.

Their accuracy is much better, specially at home, and are highly moralized. Howard will be able to control the game in the paint, and Jameer and Carter will be able to hold the opponent guards. We can expect an huge edge for the Magics, with a great defense and a well organized offensive, and will easily put down the Hawks today.

Pick: Orlando Magic -9 -110 (1.91) Bookmaker

[TommyGold]

Cleveland Cavaliers @ Boston Celtics

If there were any questions, it would be more probable a 2-0 for the Celtics than for the Cavaliers. It seems that will happen the same from last season: the Cavs being a big contenders, with high expectations, but unable to reach the title. We should give the credits that the Celtics deserve. If in game one, they allowed a good bounce back when they were winning by more than 10 points, in the second game they didn't accept any appeal from the Cavs and won by 18 points.

At this point, the Cavs already lost the home advantage, something that they needed an entire regular season to achieve. With some lack of team work and chemistry, specially due to a bad coaching in the final part of the regular season, the team isn't producing as much as they can. That 2 weeks they played without their best players, losing the mechanism that they acquired during months, are taking an huge cost. Cleveland needs to improve, a lot, or at least a streak of a really bad days from the Celtics, to get to the conference finals. The Cavaliers are struggling a lot, with lots of problem to overtake the Celtics defense. If there wasn't LeBron, the team weren't able to win the first game. With a poor offense, without dominating the rebounds and with less 3 points made, the team even with the big edge in the free throws, are having big problems.

The Celtics will only lost home games against the Cavaliers when the Cavs start to play at their best or when the Celtics will have a bad day. At this point, there is no way to see the Cavs going to win at Boston, even with the odds making the Cavs the favorites. The Celtics are dominating in the paint, as they are much more aggressive, and are making a great defensive games. They have the edge there, and with several good offensive players as well, have the edge against the Cavaliers. About LeBron, they are making lots of faults on them to try to stop him, as he his the only Cavaliers players that the Celtics have difficulties to stop. But they can deal with it well if they can stop the rest of the team as they did in the last games.

Picks: Boston Celtics PK -110 (1.91) 5Dimes, BetPhoenix & Under 193 -105 (1.95) BetPhoenix, -110 (1.91) Bookmaker

[TommyGold]

Boston Celtics @ Cleveland Cavaliers

Today we will have match 5 between the Celtics and the Cavaliers. In the previous 4 matches, we had 2 overs and 2 unders. It seems balanced?

No, only the unders were the kind of games as we should expect and easy bets. The first over, was due to a bounce back, and was lost by few points. In that game, the Cavs had a great third quarter with lots of points in their bounce back, in order to grant the win.

The other over was an abnormal game. There is no chance to see another game as that one, even thinking that the bookies are giving a big spread for the Cavs.

What happened in that game, was that since the first quarter, the Cavs were winning by 20 points, giving them an early win, where they just had to manage the game, with a good offense and without bother with defense. The Celtics were always behind the game, even scoring almost 100 points, had a big loss. It wasn't the typical playoff game, and between these 2 teams in playoffs, probably just happen once in a 100 games.

With the series tie, the Celtics will try to make an early lead as they did in the first two games in Cleveland. They were able to surprise the Cavs with a strong power in the paint. As they saw in the last game, their biggest chances is with a big defense, and the Celtics are the kind of team that can easily defend, due to big and experience players. At the road, they always try to use it, and in the playoffs, the defense have a special role. They will have to give the game a low pace, try to hold LeBron somehow, even with free throws, as he is the only player that the Celtics aren't able to stop.

The rest of the team, Doc Rivers can mount the team in the best way to stop the Cavs, holding them without spaces to shot. At Cleveland, there isn't much space to errors for the Celtics, if they want to win. They already won one game at Cleveland, knowing that a good defense is the key. In both games they won this series, they hold the Cavs for 86 and 87 points in each game, curiously both unders in this series.

The Cavs needed a great LeBron to win first game, and an absolutely aggressive mode to win the first game at Boston. However, the team can keep the same performance twice in a row, as the Celtics rapidly adjust to the Cavs game. The Cavs need to be smarter, find more faster a way to overcome Boston Celtics. At home, their defense is strong, and knowing that they will have big problems with the Celtics defense, it's vital to have a good defense as well.

This series is arriving to a determination part, where a mistake can ruin everything. At this point, Rondo it's a huge problem to the Cavaliers, and they will have to adjust a better defense, as they have to stop win without removing any defense to any other player of the Big Three. This game will be very tactical, where a bad read of the game, a late timeout or a bad 2 minutes for one player can throw all the season away.

Pick: Under 194.5 -110 (1.91) The Greek

[TommyGold]

Cleveland Cavaliers @ Boston Celtics

Boston will host today the Cavs thinking that today they have a gold opportunity to end this series and go through it. If they won tonight, they will play the conference finals against the Orlando Magics. However, if they lose today, they will have to play a game 7 on the road, This series are being extremely balanced, with both teams alternating wins until the last 2 games, where the Celtics were able to snap 2 wins in a row. In 3 home games, the Cavs lost 2, mostly due to a bad defense and low power in the paint. However, they were able to win 1 of 2 road games, having tonight the chance to won the 2 in 3 games and make the tie.

Boston Celtics didn't made a good regular season, at least, not as good as every one expected. However, they easily passed the Heats in 5 games, and are in the eminence of knock out the contenders to the title Cleveland Cavaliers. In their 3 wins, they were able to hold the Cavs to less than 70 shots, and overcame the Cavs in the rebounds as well. In the middle of their wins, that had a blow out loss at home, just the same that happened in he last game, where they were dogs by +7.5 points but won by almost 40 points. Once again, they had a terrific defense and hold the Cavs for less than 70 shots.

In that games we can also highlight their offense, that is able to score with a great accuracy, including the six 3 points made by Allen last game. In their last home game, they were able to win by 10 points, with a low pace game, holding the Cavs for even less shots than the last game at Cleveland. This hard defense started after the Cavs gave them a blowout loss in the first game at Boston. Tonight, the Celtics are aware that they will meet the Cavs they faced in that first game at Boston, aggressive, and will have to make their best defensive performance in this season to hold the Cavs and try to finish this series tonight.

The Cavs have the talent to do a better figure. With a 3 shots made in 14 attempts, Lebron had made one of their worst playoff games ever, leaving his team "to death". Even with a poor performance, several of the Cavs players had a barely decent performances, such as Shaq that ended with 21 points. After their won in the first game in this series, where they were able to end the game with the same rebound of the Celtics, the lost the second game at home. It was in that point, with a 1-1 tie in the series, that they went to Boston. They knew that only one win in any of those two games can give them the home advantage again, and so, they entered the first game with "fire in their ass".

They had made the right approach to the game, being extremely aggressive, overcoming the Celtics defense and being better in the rebounds for the only time in this series. They have a great offensive power, after all, they got LeBron James in their roster. They just have to be aggressive, facing the game with their angry as they did in the last time they went to Boston needing to win. Their apathy in their last game at home, that cost them the game and left the team in disadvantage, can only be fixed with a win today. Today, the Cavs or win or will end the season.

Picks: Cleveland Cavaliers ML +105 (2.05) Bookmaker & Under 194.5 -110 (1.91) The Greek

[TommyGold]

Boston Celtics @ Orlando Magic

We will have tonight the first final in 2010 NBA season. The Magic will host in Orlando the "not so much surprising" Celtics, for the first game in the Western Conference final. Could Orlando finally lose a game in this playoffs? Since the start of the playoffs, Orlando were able to shutdown their opponents by 4-0. They didn't allowed yet any game, being invincible in this playoffs when they start the conference final.

In the 8 playoffs games they already had, they didn't had any lucky win, as they win all of them convincingly. Since the last games of the regular season, when Orlando's coach, Gundy, said that there would be no rest for the team when they already had granted the playoffs, the team is increasing and getting stronger. Even without any rest in the last games, where they were all required to play, to improve their game and chemistry, the team didn't seemed tired in any playoff game.

And due to easy qualifications, they only had to play 8 games since the end of regular season, giving them much more days to rest than the opponent. At home, they won all their games by 9 or much more points, with a great offense and defense. They just seem to be unstoppable on this playoffs.

The Celtics, arrive here with lots of work. They benefited of a bad coaching from the Miami Heats side to snap a 4-1 win. They won one game at Miami, with an INCREDIBLE bad play from the Heats in the last seconds, and were able to hold their home games, ending the series early. Then, they started a series against the supposedly almighty Cavaliers. However, we all saw that the Cavaliers were far from their best.

The Celtics were able to manage a good defense, having the edge in the paint, and snapped 2 games at Cleveland. Their frontcourt was their only theorical edge, but they also had the big help from the unexpected (for some) Rondo, that have made some great games. However, they will host today a frontcourt that have Howard on it. If they had problems at Miami against Miami frontcourt, today we will see much bigger problems to the Celtics. They are not playing this year as they should.

They have a good roster, with the young Rondo helping the old Big Three, but had lucky in this playoffs. We have to discredit the previous opponents that the Celtics had, but today, they will face the team that is in better shape and have the higher moral in the NBA. They will have big problems in the paint, and probably will not be able to impose their defense, the key of their wins. Their offense will also have big problems, as at Orlando, it isn't easy to pass the Magic big men.

Pick: Orlando Magic -6.5 -109 (1.92) BetPhoenix, -110 (1.91) Bookmaker, -111 (1.90) Goalwin